The Farm Life Of a "Fool"

Chapter 39

Everyone started visiting their families on the second day of the lunar new year. Liu Tong's father and daddy had passed away, leaving behind his despised uncle's family. He had no intention of paying them new year's greetings. Xu Ran, on the other hand, would never want to visit his ruthless father. In any case, their friendship had come to an end. If he wanted to, he could send some gifts. If he didn't mean that, people would not say anything bad about him.

The families of Wu Mei and the others had all gone to see their spouses' houses, so they would not be coming to them today. Tangtang and Guoguo had already taken their dogs for a walk to play with their little pals. As a result, Xu Ran and Liu Tong had little to do at home.

The people in the village were unfamiliar to Xu Ran. More importantly, they had few mutual interests, so Xu Ran was hesitant to go out all the time, and Liu Tong today thought it was inappropriate for him to go out alone because Xu Ran remained at home alone.

Sitting at the door, Xu Ran was in a daze for a while and then he said to Liu Tong, "Tongtong, let me teach you how to write."

Liu Tong knew how to read, but he couldn't write. He had recognized about ten words after meeting them over and over again. He was surprised to hear Xu Ran say that he was willing to teach him to write. And he was naturally happy to be able to recognize more words. Thus he immediately agreed, "OK!"

Xu Ran did exactly as he said he would. He and Liu Tong relocated the table from the house to the yard and set up the writing station. Xu Ran then asked Liu Tong to keep the writing brush in his hand as he stood behind him. They started by writing Liu Tong's name on the paper, followed by his name, as well as Tangtang's and Guoguo's.

Liu Tong was very active in learning and writing. After practicing for some time, his handwriting became quite good. Xu Ran praised him greatly with a thumbs up.

In this way, on the second day of the lunar new year, the couple practiced writing all day long.

On the third day of the new year, Wu Mei's family invited them for dinner.

According to the custom of Spring Festival, several friendly families would take turns to invite each other to dinner. Every year, in such a festival, the whole family always went out together.

Then it was Wu Lan's and Liu Qing's families' turn to stand treat for the next two days, on the fourth and fifth days. Then it was Xu Ran's family's turn on the 6th. On that very day, however, an unexpected visitor arrived.

At that time, Xu Ran was chatting with Xu An and the others in the courtyard. In the kitchen, several Ge'ers were busy cooking, while a group of kids were playing and walking the dogs outside the yard.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the approaching sound of horses' hooves. Xu Ran remembered the bandits who had robbed the village and went out right away to herd all the kids into the yard. Xu Ran didn't notice who the guest was until the carriage approached.

The driver of the carriage was the shopkeeper in the Zhuo Yun's seed shop. They had met several times, so Xu Ran recognized him at a glance

Xu Ran touched his chin and said to himself, 'How could he come here? Does he have any relatives here?'

"Who is he? Do you know the man who is driving the carriage? " Xu An asked suddenly, which scared Xu Ran.

Pointing at the carriage that had stopped outside their yard, Xu Ran said, "I know this person. He is a shopkeeper selling seeds in the town. Let's go and see what he is doing."

The shopkeeper had seen Xu Ran and stopped the carriage. And then he saw Xu Ran coming out. He even ignored the people in the carriage, and quickly said hello to Xu Ran, "Happy New Year, Mr. Xu!"